Grayscale Investments, a major Bitcoin investor, has witnessed a significant decrease in its holdings of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in anticipation of the upcoming Bitcoin halving event. The amount of Bitcoin held in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF (GBTC) dropped by 50% from 619,220 BTC on January 11th. As of April 16th, the ETF held 309,871 BTC, valued at $19.7 billion. This decrease in holdings coincided with the Bitcoin halving, which occurs every four years and is often associated with subsequent market rallies in the crypto industry. It is worth noting that the two events are not directly correlated but add another interesting element to the timeline of Bitcoin-related events.
GBTC has experienced a significant sell-off since its first day of trading, which has had a notable impact on the price of Bitcoin. This sell-off has largely been attributed to the high trading fees associated with GBTC, which had the highest fees among the ten spot Bitcoin ETFs in the United States at 1.5% when it initially launched. In contrast, most other Bitcoin ETFs have been lowering their fees to increase competitiveness, with trading commissions ranging from 0.2% to 0.4%.
GBTC’s main competitor, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), started trading with a fee of 0.25%, and also offered a 0.12% discount for the first $5 billion of traded assets during a waiver period. IBIT has seen significant inflows, with its holdings increasing by over 10,000% from 2,621 BTC to 272,548 BTC on April 16th. However, despite this growth, IBIT has not been able to absorb the outflows from GBTC, which amounted to 309,349 BTC. Nevertheless, when combined with the holdings of eight other issuers, the spot Bitcoin ETF providers have accumulated around 224,552 BTC since their launch.
In total, as of April 16th, the ten spot Bitcoin ETFs collectively held approximately 862,162 BTC, valued at $54.7 billion. This demonstrates the increasing popularity and growth of these ETFs in the market.
Source: Vetle Lunde
Magazine: Bitcoin Halving will pump games, Shrapnel’s ‘simple’ secret revealed: Web3 Gamer